BELLEVUE, NEB. – Nine Vikings scored in Wednesday night's game as the No. 5 Valley City State women's basketball team took an upset over the No. 4 Bellevue Bruins Wednesday night on the road, 78-76.
 
Every Viking who saw the court Wednesday night scored at least three points and grabbed two rebounds as VCSU put together a strong team effort to upend the Bruins. VCSU ends Bellevue's season who finished at 15-13 overall while the Vikings improve to 15-13 overall and continue their season to the NSAA Semifinals. It's VCSU's first trip to the semifinal round since the 2018-19 season.
 
VCSU opened Wednesday night's first quarter strong by going 10-for-16 from the field. After holding a 9-7 lead, an Abby Aslesen jumper sparked a 13-6 run to finish the first frame with a 22-13 advantage. Bellevue responded with a big quarter of its own, outscoring the Vikings 25-13 including four 3's to hold a narrow 38-35 lead at halftime.
 
Out of the locker room, Bellevue built its lead to 45-37 on a 3-pointer from Gabby Moore only two minutes into the third quarter but VCSU wouldn't let the Bruins pull away by any more. VCSU inched closer and tied the game at 48-48 on an Ashlyn Diemert 3, and pulled away with an 11-5 run to lead by as much as eight points in the frame en route to a 61-56 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
 
Bellevue trimmed the deficit to 61-60 on a fastbreak bucket from Ashtyn Arnold, but VCSU held off the comeback attempt. The Vikings took a 10-1 run capped by a jump shot from JayCee Richter to hold a double figure lead at 71-61. Bellevue found ways to draw fouls down the stretch to pull within one possession at 77-74 with 45 seconds to play, but VCSU delivered defensive stops to hold on for the road win.
 
VCSU finished the game shooting 47 percent from the field (28-60), 38 percent on 3-pointers (6-16) and 70 percent on free throws (16-23). Bellevue shot 42 percent on field goals (27-65), 35 percent on 3's (7-20) and 52 percent from the charity stripe (15-29). VCSU led the rebounding effort 44-38, including 12 on the offensive glass.
 
All nine Vikings scored in Wednesday night's game led by Richter with 19 points. Aslesen added 15 points and nine rebounds, while Olivia Backus contributed 10 points off the Viking bench. Diemert totaled eight points and Ellie Braaten tallied seven points, nine assists and seven rebounds for VCSU. Also scoring for the Vikings include Madison Spacher (7), Elyse Hebrink (5), Tilda Mauritzson (4), and Ellie Powell (3).
 
Bellevue's Gabby Moore led all scorers with 23 points while Zakiyyah Muhammad and Kaylee Denker each scored 14. Ashtyn Arnold contributed 12 points and eight assists for the Bruins.
 
UP NEXT: No. 5 VCSU travels to No. 1 Dakota State on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Vikings handed Dakota State its only NSAA loss of the season on Feb. 1 in Valley City with a final score of 75-61.